1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to holographic laser scanners of ultra-compact design capable of reading bar code symbols in point-of-sale (POS) and other demanding scanning environments.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The use of bar code symbols for product and article identification is well known in the art.
Presently, various types of bar code symbol scanners have been developed. In general, these bar code symbol readers can be classified into two distinct classes.
The first class of bar code symbol reader simultaneously illuminates all of the bars and spaces of a bar code symbol with light of a specific wavelength(s) in order to capture an image thereof for recognition and decoding purposes. Such scanners are commonly known as CCD scanners because they use CCD image detectors to detect images of the bar code symbols being read.
The second class of bar code symbol reader uses a focused light beam, typically a focused laser beam, to sequentially scan the bars and spaces of a bar code symbol to be read. This type of bar code symbol scanner is commonly called a “flying spot” scanner as the focused laser beam appears as “a spot of light that flies” across the bar code symbol being read. In general, laser bar code symbol scanners are subclassified further by the type of mechanism used to focus and scan the laser beam across bar code symbols.
Polygon-based laser scanning systems employ lenses and moving (i.e. rotating or oscillating) polygon mirrors and/or other optical elements in order to focus and scan laser beams across bar code symbols during code symbol reading operations. Examples of such polygon-based laser scanning systems is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,006,343; 4,093,865; 4,960,985; 5,073,702; 5,229,588; and JP-54-33740, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Holographic-based laser scanning systems employ lenses and moving (i.e. rotating) holographic elements and/or other optical elements in order to focus and scan laser beams across bar code symbols during code symbol reading operations. Examples of such holographic-based laser scanning systems is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,415,224; 4,758,058; 4,748,316; 4,591,242; 4,548,463; 4,652,732; 4,794,237; 4,647,143; 5,331,445; 5,416,505; 5,475,207; 5,705,802; 5,837,988; and JP64-48017, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In demanding retail scanning environments, it is common to employ polygon-based laser scanning systems that have both bottom and side scanning windows to enable highly aggressive scanner performance, whereby the cashier need only drag a bar coded product past these scanning windows for the bar code thereon to be automatically read with minimal assistance of the cashier or checkout personal. Such dual scanning window systems are typically referred to as “bioptical” laser scanning systems as such systems employ two sets of optics disposed behind the bottom and side scanning windows thereof. Examples of polygon-based bioptical laser scanning systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,206,491; 5,229,588; 5,684,289; 5,705,802; 5,801,370; and 5,886,336, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In general, prior art bioptical laser scanning systems are generally more aggressive that conventional single scanning window systems. For this reason, bioptical scanning system are often deployed in demanding retail environments, such as supermarkets and high-volume department stores, where high check-out throughput is critical to achieving store profitability and customer satisfaction.
While prior art bioptical scanning systems represent a technological advance over most single scanning window system, prior art bioptical scanning systems in general suffered from various shortcomings and drawbacks.
In particular, by virtue of the dual scanning windows and supporting optics required by prior art bioptical laser scanning systems, such scanning systems have been physically larger than many retail environments would otherwise desire, as space near the point-of-sale is the most valuable space within the retail environment. Also, the laser scanning patterns of prior art bioptical laser scanning systems are not optimized in terms of scanning coverage and performance, and are generally expensive to manufacture by virtue of the large number of optical components presently required to constructed such laser scanning systems.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for an improved bioptical-type laser scanning bar code symbol reading system, while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art laser scanning systems and methodologies.